The Man in the Glass Booth (1975)

Arthur Goldman is a rich Jewish industrialist, living in luxury in a Manhattan high-rise. He banters with his assistant Charlie, often shocking Charlie with his outrageousness and ... See full summary »

Director:

Arthur Hiller

Writer:

Edward Anhalt (screenplay)

Stars:

Maximilian Schell, Lois Nettleton, Lawrence Pressman

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maximilian Schell	...	Arthur Goldman
Lois Nettleton	...	Miriam Rosen
Lawrence Pressman	...	Charlie Cohn
Luther Adler	...	Presiding Judge
Lloyd Bochner	...	Dr. Churchill
Robert H. Harris	...	Dr. Weisburger
Henry Brown	...	Jack
Norbert Schiller	...	Dr. Schmidt
Berry Kroeger	...	Joachim Berger
Leonardo Cimino	...	Dr. Alvarez
Connie Sawyer	...	Mrs. Levi
Leonidas Ossetynski	...	Samuel Weisberg (as Leonidas Ossettynski)
David Nash	...	Rami
Martin Berman	...	Uri
Richard Rasof	...	Moshe

Storyline

Arthur Goldman is a rich Jewish industrialist, living in luxury in a Manhattan high-rise. He banters with his assistant Charlie, often shocking Charlie with his outrageousness and irreverence about aspects of Jewish life. Nonetheless, Charlie is astonished when, one day, Israeli secret agents burst in and arrest Goldman for being not a Jewish businessman but a Nazi war criminal. Whisked to Israel for trial, Goldman forces his accusers to face not only his presumed guilt--but their own.

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Plot Keywords:

jewish | trial | nazi | x rayed skeleton | courtroom | 

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Taglines:

The kidnapping . . . . The masquerade . . . The murder trial . . . . Perhaps the most suspenseful shocker of our time.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

27 January 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

El hombre de la cabina de cristal

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinévision Ltée, The American Film Theatre, The Ely Landau Organization Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The source play and subsequently also this filmed adaptation were inspired by the kidnapping and war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, the events themselves later becoming the subject of their own movie, The Trial of Adolf Eichmann.

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Goofs

The X-ray that the attorney holds up is supposedly the defendant's shoulder. In fact it shows a woman's pelvis, with an IUD in place.

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Connections

Referenced in Sneak Previews: Taxi Driver/The Man Who Would Be King/Hester Street/The Story of Adele H. (1976)

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Soundtracks

"Es war ein Edelweiss"
("It was an Edelweiss")
Written by Herms Niel
Sung by Charlie (Lawrence Pressman)

User Reviews

Evaluation and judgement of living through the Holocaust.

The main character of the film is Arthur Goldman played by Maximilian Schell, a survivor of the Holocaust and the natural guilt of surviving such an ordeal. He is also, very proud of his accomplishments, in becoming a millionaire in the United States, but with a streak of sarcasm where the Jewish belief and that of the Christian belief of the control of human destiny through these institutions is complete in its endeavors to fulfill the reason for what man does to man and the imminent conflict that arises form this question. His question is how can this be, how could it happen and most important: Why it did happen?

This film gives one much to think about, especially in our times, in the late nineteenth, and twentieth century, there was a great anti-Semitist feeling that through the Nazi regime was taken to the "Final Solution" and the Holocaust of the Jews. They were singled out as the problem of the state. The state is the problem, not a group of people, this film portrays the Nazi reasoning and the Jews' incomprehension of that reason, and the hate that can be vented onto anyone. All this just to create a national feeling and then: Does not that same feeling create and maintain Israel. ("Exodus" the movie)